Monday, July 08, 2013

Healthcare, Mobility and Digital Transformations

Healthcare is one of those industries that will be most impacted by SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) developments. It is information based. Information, as we all know, is easily digitized, analyzed, stored in the cloud, and shared via mobile devices.

Here is a personal example. Yesterday, I was experiencing stomach ailments and jumped on the website, WebMD. I then added some reminders on my iPhone regarding health practices that I want to follow. Ideally, I would engage with my doctor on non-serious issues via a mobile app. I could record my symptoms and have her review and advise me no matter where in the world I am at the moment. Our crazy healthcare system in the USA, however, would not know how to handle this simple mobile services or the payment for them. I can only hope that someday logic will prevail.

Here are some of the key reasons mHealth is being transformed today:

The recognized need by providers, insurers, and governments to improve services and reduce the costs of caring for those with chronic illnesses.

Patients increasingly understand how mHealth technologies can help them better communicate with providers and manage their health.

The rapid movement toward standards that will form the backbone for interoperability within the health industry.

If you are a healthcare industry software vendor or systems integrator with some clever and cool healthcare related solutions please share them with us in the comments section of this article, or email me at kevin.benedict@cognizant.com. I would love to learn and write about them.

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.